LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2950, 9 December 1916, Page 13

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Stray Leaves; Mrs. Maud Diver's latest novel, "Desmond's Daughter," is very well reviewed by, the-English papers. In the October "Bookman" is given an interesting account of this popular novelist's career. She is an Anglo-Indian by . birth, and from sixteen to thirty lived in India and Ceylon. Through her father, she is related to the famous Lawrences of tho Punjaub, and through her mother she is a great niece of Field-Marshal Sir George Pollock, of Jellalabad fame. , per first and greatest friend is Rudyard_ Kipling's sister. She married Lieutenant, now Colonel, Diver, and when her husband's regiment returned to England, and the problem of educating her son had to bo faced, she made her first attempt to write fiction. Slio had already contributed poem's and essays to a Ceylon newspaper! 1 ; In 1907 her first novel, "Captain Desmond, V.C.,," appeared as a serial in "Blackwood's Magazine,"-, and when republished in volume form at onco made a great hit. Other novels have followed, some of which have been' translated into Danish and Norwegian. In two of Mrs. Diver's novels, "The Hero of Herat" and "The Judgment of tho Sword," Lord Roberts took a great interest. Mrs. Diver's husband and son are both actively engaged in the, war;

Miss Norma Lorimer, whose "Wife Out of Egypt" was so successful, and whose latest novel, "The God's Carnival," was recently reviewed in these columns, is shortly to publish a new book, "By'the Waters of Africa." It is an intimate account of a woman's lifo and travels in East Africa, especially Uganda.

Tho October "Bookman" is one or the best numbers of Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton's excellent periodical that wo have had for some time. A special article is devoted to the work and personality of that clever young Scotsman. John Buchan, to whose "History of the War," published by Nelson's; I have so frequently alluded. Mr. Buchan is a strikingly versatile writer. Ho has written many excellent navels, of which I specially recall "John Burnet of Burns," which is quito in tho Stevonsonian vein, and "Prester John" (in which, however, 'there is moro than a suspicion of Rider. Haggardian influence). As Private Secretary to Lord Milner, then High Commissioner in South Africa, Buchan collected the material used in "A Lodgo in the Wilderness," and "Tho African Colony: Studies in Reconstruction," and in. addition to acting as a war correspondent, he has written an excellent, sensational yarn, "The ThirtyNine Steps," the while lie brings out regularly the monthly volumes of his history, and is busily engaged in directing tho literary sido of tho great publishing house of Nelson. And ho is still only one year on ilia wrong side of forty 1 Other good. features in the October "Bookman" include articles on "Shakespeare's England," by Thomas Seccombe; "War Poets and Others," by Ktitiierino Tynan; "The Author of Ercwhon," by Georgo Sampson; and a long and particularly interesting article on Sheridan lo Fanu, tho author of "Shamus O'Brien," and , some once famous but now unfairly neglected novels. To this last article 1 hope to make extended reference on another occasion.

It is a for erj now to the day when Miss Beatrico • Harraden made such a hit with that pathetic but brilliant-ly-written story, "Ships That Pass in tho Night." _ Her literary industry, however, continues uiiabated. In licr latest novel, "The Guiding Thread," the motif is tho revolt of a young wife against tho intellectual bondago in which slio is held by a learned husband.

Another woll-kuown lady writer, Miss May Sinclair, is publishing a long and serious study, "Some Ultimate

Questions of Psychology and Metaphysics." Miss Sinclair has written many 'novels, but her early work was, I read, in philosophy, so sho is making 110 now departure. Esjrly in the new year is to he published a biography of the late Professor James Goikie, the eminent Scots geologist and geographer.

All who know and enjoy the travel sketches, and essays of that brilliant writer, R. B. Cunninghame-Graham, to whoso work I recently made extended reference, will he sorry to learn that his forthcoming new book, another collection of scattered essays and studies of life in the Argentine and Morocco, is to be his last literary effort. Air. Graham has been engaged since tho war began in supervising the purchase of mules for the British Army.

Maurice Hewlett has published a new book of poems and ballads, "Gai Saber." How well Mr. Hewlett turns the ballad metre to use in a war poem may bo seen by the following quotation:— "0 mother, mother, isn!t it fun, The soldiors marching past in t'lio sun?" "Child, ohild, what are you saying? Come to church! We should bo praying." "Look, mother, at their bright spears!" "The leaves are falling like women's tears." "You. are not looking at what I see." "Nay, but I look at what must be." "Hark to tho piper! See the flags flying!" "I hear the sound of a girl crying." "How many hundreds before tliey'ro done?" "How many mothers wanting a son?" "Here rides tho General pacing slow!" "Well ho may, if he knows what I know." "0, this war, what o glorious ganio!" "Sin and shame, sin and shame!" In"Ypres and Other Pooms," by W G. Shakespeare, wo havo a slonder little volume of war poems, some of which are of high quality. Here is a pathetio little picture of the ruined old Flemish city:— • "Hopo and mirth are gone. Beauty is departed. Heaven's hid in smoke, if there's Heaven still. Silent tho city, friendless, broken-hearted, Crying in quiet as - a widow will. Oh, for tho 6ound hero of a good man's ; laughter, Of one blind beggar singing in tho streetj Where there's no sound, except a blazing rafter , Falls, and the pattor of a starved dog's feet." Books of naval reminiscences generally make good reading, and a forthcoming volume of recolleotions by Admiral Sir Penrose Fitzgerald, to bo entitled.'"From Sail to Steam,", should provido sonio entertaining stories. Arnold's will publish the book. Under the. brief title, "War," we are to havo an English translation of Pierre Loti's last book, . "La- Hyene Euragee" (tlio mad hyena), The Hun, of course, is the subject.. Before tho war Pierro Loti had shown signs, especially in his book, on India, of a curious and not very ' pleasant; Anglophobia, and had been quite gusliful in his praise of tho Young Turks. The war, however, lias, it is understood, considerably changed his point of view.